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Saturday, December 14, 2013

How do you practice humility from the most exalted throne on earth? Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly—young and old, faithful and cynical—as has Pope Francis. In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power.

Some on the left and right are upset and the selection and given the humility of this pope he's likely indifferent to it but he also knows how to use the modern media to the ends of tempting people away from the darkness and into the light.

Can the Holy Spirit pick them or not?

This week India's Supreme Court shocked liberal around the world in reversing a four year old court ruling that struck down the law outlawing Homosexual acts.

The bench said: "In the light of plain meaning and legislative history of the section, we hold that Section 377 IPC would apply irrespective of age and consent." It added that the section does not discriminate any group with a particular sexual preference, a stand that was diametrically opposite to that by the Delhi HC."It is relevant to mention here that Section 377 IPC does not criminalize a particular people or identity or orientation. It merely identifies certain acts, which if committed, would constitute an offence. Such prohibition regulates sexual conduct regardless of gender identity and orientation," Justices Singhvi said.

Not only did the Indian supreme court make this decision but their ruling contained a statement that likely stung those pushing gay marriage more than anything else:

"Parliament, which is undisputedly the representative body of the people of India, has not thought it proper to delete the provision." Parliament has not amended the law either, it added.

Imagine, insisting that those pushing for gay marriage get the votes in parliament of the elected representatives of the people to change the laws rather than relying on the courts to do it for them. Why that's...democratic!

The main problem for the left of course with this ruling is that it was made by Indian jurists in an Indian court. To attack those jurists would be tantamount to cultural imperialism. What's a leftist to do?

Given the slow pace of lawmaking in India, an upcoming election and polls suggesting the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party could unseat the ruling Congress Party in national elections, it’s likely the ban introduced under British colonial rule will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

By blaming colonial rule they can ignore India's 60+ years of independence and keep the focus on white Europeans, they are an acceptable villain.

No such problem with the ruling in Australia where gay marriage was struck down a few days later:

The High Court unanimously ruled that the ACT's law could not operate concurrently with the federal Marriage Act, which was amended in 2004 to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
"The Marriage Act does not now provide for the formation or recognition of marriage between same sex couples. The Marriage Act provides that a marriage can be solemnised in Australia only between a man and a woman," the court said in a statement issued alongside its ruling. "That Act is a comprehensive and exhaustive statement of the law of marriage."

These guys are descended from White Europeans, it's politically acceptable to hate them.

On the Bright side for fans of Gay Marriage there was an unexpected victory within Islam as Shiite cleric Abdallah Al-Khilaf ruled that to accommodate an anal explosive sodomy goes from forbidden to required:

Now, what I find hilarious here is that it never occurs to anyone that there might be some kind of technological work-around short of repeated sodomy. You know, maybe there’s a device or a technique, something that is a little less unpleasant, inconvenient or forbidden than straight-up buggery? Nope. Gotta go with the sodomy. The Saturday Night Live skit writes itself:

Jihadi: What if we make the bomb smaller?

Sheikh: What? That’s crazy. Sodomy is the only way.

Jihadi: Couldn’t I use replica of a male, well, you know. In private like

. . .
Sheikh: Shh! Let’s not even discuss it.

Jihadi: What if I’m willing to tolerate a lot of discomfort when it comes time for the martyrdom operation? I mean, it’s my choice. I am blowing myself up after all. What’s a little discomfort?

Sheikh: You’re not hearing me. This is the way it has to be. Don’t you want to murder infidels?

No word is gay rights advocates consider this a win.

John Boehner got a win this week, the Paul Ryan Patty Murray budget passed with overwhelming number of both Republicans and Democrats and he decided rather than point out the merits of the bill, to take out his frustrations on the GOP base:

House Speaker John Boehner went off on outside conservative groups Wednesday morning for pushing against the new budget deal.

“They’re using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals,” he said. “This is ridiculous.”

Really Mr. Speaker, you’re going to use your face time to attack conservatives?

How likely would the Republican wave DaTechGuy remembers from 2010 actually have happened in 2012? Boehner wouldn’t have been Speaker and we would have had an uninterrupted reign of Madame “We have to pass it to see what’s in it” Pelosi. Now go to the next level of scariness – if you thing US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has enabled Obama’s Unitary Presidency by making the Senate all but irrelevant in the Founders’ scheme of divided Government, where would we be after four years of co-joined rubberstamping by a tag teaming Pelosi?

Gratefulness? Humility? For acting as the breakers against which the Obama / Democrat tsunami was stopped? Hardly – given what many have seen lately, there’s more than a fair share of Republican hubris along with Boehner’s that they alone were responsible for 2010 – and have subsequently thrown the TEA Party’s enthusiastic ground pounders (with their ‘outmoded’ political philosophy and their totally out-fashioned suburban / rural sense of sensibilities for the absolute nuances rooted in DC) under the bus with the flair and expediency of Obama.

We all know how alienating the base worked so well in 2012, does the party really want to go through this again?

There were some contradictions at ESPN, first they banned an ad from a Catholic hospital that mentioned Christmas & Jesus then they unbanned it.

ESPN has reversed course and will now allow a Catholic charity to air a television ad heralding the birth of Christ during a college basketball game this weekend, officials said.

The Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation in St. Louis produced a 30-second spot asking viewers to write holiday messages to sick children. The ad seeks to "help us reveal God's healing presence this Christmas" and notes that the SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Center "celebrate(s) the birth of Jesus and the season of giving."

This type of thing always makes we laugh, there are a lot of people who really want to strike Christ out of Christmas in fact strike down Christmas itself, yet when they talk all I can hear is this passage from Dickens:

`You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?'' said Scrooge.
``If quite convenient, Sir.''
``It's not convenient,'' said Scrooge, ``and it's not fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'd think yourself ill-used, I 'll be bound?''
The clerk smiled faintly.
``And yet,'' said Scrooge, ``you don't think me ill-used, when I pay a day's wages for no work.''
The clerk observed that it was only once a year.
``A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December!'' said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. ``But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning!''
The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl.

I've yet to see any of these people decide to open their business on the 25th and decline to take or pay the holiday time coming for working on December the 25th. But that's no more surprising than big corporations funding the left

Thursday, November 28, 2013

it's a time of thanks and I'm thankful that I have most of the mobility and movement back in my thumb after the break, there are a lot of other people who are thanking too.
In Denver the Democrats are thankful that one of the recall target's decided to play ball rather than fight.

State Sen. Evie Hudak has decided to resign rather than risk facing a recall election that, should she lose, would flip control of the senate to Republicans, FOX31 Denver was first to report Wednesday.
Later Wednesday morning, Hudak made her resignation letter public.
“In the interest of preserving the progress made over the last year, I am resigning as State Senator for District 19, effective immediately,” Hudak wrote.

Under Colorado rules her a Democrat committee will pick her replacement. I'm sure she's be thankful for the job she will be get for it.
Nationally The Obama Administration also has reasons to be thankful, first of all thankful for the Thanksgiving Holiday to dump the news of their latest delay in the program they are so anxious to run on in 2014

The Obama administration today announced a one year delay of online enrollment for small businesses looking to purchase health coverage through federal Obamacare exchanges, another high-profile setback for HealthCare.gov.
It’s the second delay for online small business enrollment, which the administration had said would begin this month.

Oddly enough this delay puts off the enforcement till after the next election while the Ted Cruz delay would have been before. I'm sure Despite protests to the contrary Harry Reid & Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be very thankful for that.
The White House is certainly thankful for the people who support Obamacare, like the acolytes willing shill at the Thanksgiving Table:

Organizing for America - the Obama grass roots organization - has some helpful hints for those who want to ruin everyone's Thanksgiving with political talk.
USA Today:
The tips including asking your family and guests coming over for the holiday to bring the information they'd need to sign up for Obamacare, because it's absolutely not awkward at all to tell someone you'd like him to bring wine and oh, his social security number and annual salary, too. You're advised to bring up Obamacare during "family time ... downtime after meals or between holiday activities."

Thankful for "nonpartisian" groups willing to give and take a Million to put out ads to support it

Families USA (FUSA) — an organization that describes itself as a “national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans” — was given a $1.1 million grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on October 4, 2013, to gather “success stories” of Americans dealing with Obamacare and distribute them to the media who often refer to them as an “independent” group. This is part of a greater upcoming effort to bolster the perception of the lowly health care law.
“The purpose is to bridge the information gap for people who can significantly benefit from the Affordable Care Act,” Ron Pollack, the Co-founder and Executive Director of Families USA, told TIME on October 25, 2013.
However, the organization is a far cry from “non-partisan” and is extremely close to the Obama Administration and Enroll America – the group leading the efforts to sign people up for Obamacare.

AARP understands that without young, healthy Americans signing on in droves the whole thing will come crashing down. So they want moms to do their dirty work, according to the New York Times.

In one cheeky campaign, AARP is urging mothers to send e-cards to their children reminding them to sign up. One e-card reads, “As a reward for signing up for health insurance, I’ll defriend you on Facebook.” Another group, Organizing for Action, is seeking to steer holiday conversations toward health care by encouraging parents to have “the talk” with their adult children. And a Colorado group is promoting an adfeaturing a hapless young man who calls his mother from the golf course: “Yo, Mom, do I got insurance?”

It sure made me grateful that I had the good sense to tear up the cards AARP sent me when I turned 50.

But if there is one Obamacare the White House is most grateful for, it's that the MSM doesn't want to bother to report stories like this:

Less than 72 hours ago I posted on the new videos from Project Veritas along with my exclusive interview with Daniel Francisco the Executive Director showing Obamacare shenanigans in Texas
Well it didn’t take long for those caught on videos to become expendable:
The Urban League of Greater Dallas has reportedly fired one person and suspended three others after an undercover video from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas caught Obamacare “navigators” advising a potential applicant to “lie”and provide false information to get a lower premium and more subsidies.

In a statement Tuesday, the Urban League said it “does not condone, nor would we ever sanction, misleading the public or any individual who seeks our assistance about any issue, and particularly in this case, an issue as critical as health care,” KDFW-TV reports.

A left-liberal magazine’s publication of an article titled “The Republican War on Competence” would have seemed unremarkable at just about any point in this columnist’s adult lifetime. But this article, by Jeff Shesol for The New Yorker, was published yesterday–with a Democrat in the White House presiding for the 51st day over the most stunning display of governmental incompetence since Prohibition, maybe since Nero. In that context, it’s like a dispatch from a different planet.

I can only conclude that the only difference between the Master Race in fiction and the Reporter race of reality are the faces.

about 1500 the G2, LTC Devan, came up to me and with a smile, asked me to come to dinner with him, to meet him in his office at 1600 and bring a camera. I didn't really care about getting a picture with Sanchez or Bremer, but when the division's senior intelligence officer asks you to go, you go. We were seated in the chow hall, fully decorated for thanksgiving when aaaaallllll kinds of secret service guys showed up.

That was my first clue, because Bremer's been here before and his personal security detachment is not that big. Then BG Dempsey got up to speak, and he welcomed ambassador Bremer and LTG Sanchez. Bremer thanked us all and pulled out a piece of paper as if to give a speech. He mentioned that the President had given him this thanksgiving speech to give to the troops. He then paused and said that the senior man present should be the one to give it. He then looked at Sanchez, who just smiled.

Bremer then said that we should probably get someone more senior to read the speech. Then, from behind the camouflage netting, the President of the United States came around. The mess hall actually erupted with hollering. Troops bounded to their feet with shocked smiles and just began cheering with all their hearts. The building actually shook. It was just unreal. I was absolutely stunned. Not only for the obvious, but also because I was only two tables away from the podium. There he stood, less than thirty feet away from me! The cheering went on and on and on.

Yeah we're thankful not to have a loser like that still in the White House.
One more thing, if you are thankful for the return of Under the Fedora, you might be thankful for this new addition to my own site:

Seven count them Seven Magnificent writers and bloggers joining this site as paid contributors discussing topics big and strong on a daily basis they are:

Sunday, October 6, 2013

This is a post inspired by 2 million bikers to DC, true patriotswho took action to block the ''million Muslim march'' on 9-11-2013...

How I wish I could have rode with all the patriot brothers who showed up in DC.
I watched from my distant Quebec, read the stories and seen all the pics...with tears in my eyes. I don't have a bike anymore, can't afford it. Even if I did, my present situation would not have permitted me to go, taking money away from my family. You see, I recently fell into hard times, and feeding my loved ones is the only expense I can (barely) afford.

Even though I'm a Canadian, I have much respect for the U.S.A.; A nation where the flag means something to millions of people, American or not. A nation who prides itself in FREEDOM. The FREEDOM to decide enough is enough, and where patriots are running strong, despite having the worst president ever.

I watched and cheered as 100's of thousands of patriot bikers rolled on DC to block the GIGANTIC middle finger Muslims were about to give America, Americans, and everyone in the world who were affected by the horror of the 9-11-01 attacks on liberty and freedom. I also cried thinking about the thousands of fallen ''regular'' Joe's and Jane's, in the worst attack on freedom and liberty EVER.

Of course, the mainstream media offered ZERO coverage of the ride, so I had to turn to new media, the internet, where hundreds of fellow conservative bloggers honored this initiative. Their stories and pictures made me rejoice in the fact that fellow brothers and sisters stuck it to Barrycade Obummer, and made me shed a few tears, thinking about the events that made me not able to attend this great show of American pride.

Modern day Patriots. God bless them all!

Images like this one, leather clad, long haired, unshaven people paying their respects to the fallen, made me take a long hard look at America, and what it has become...When the misfits, the outcasts, the rejected are the true patriots, you know the much needed revolution is coming. All the bleeding heart Liberals can do is step aside, and watch us take back America for our fallen brothers and sisters, their families, their friends.

I really wanted to be there. To show how much Canadians care about our cousins to the south...I would have bought the biggest ol' glory I could find, the biggest Maple leaf, and those 2 would have flown proudly together on each side of my iron horse. My head would have been held high, and my smile would have been so big, that I would have had to pick the bugs out of my teeth when arriving in DC. I would have brought the wife and kids to show them how great the US of A really are.

And when you think you have seen it all, these exceptional folks went to help out our veterans claim back their monument, tearing thru BARRYcades and escorting our vets from all over the USA.

Bikers, truckers, you make me proud I was one of yours once... I will never forget the friendships we forged during that part of my life. I will ride again, here or on the great roads in the sky. I promise you. I will never forget you. Ride hard, live free!!

Friday, September 27, 2013

It has become evident we as a nation are at a watershed moment in our society, culture and governance. Our society is depraved, our culture benighted and our governance is out of control, tending more to tyranny than as a representative republic. I remind our citizens of an excerpt from our Declaration of Independence:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

I continue with my edited "causes" (edits appear as italics and parenthesisin red):

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such (Government), and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these (States) and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

The history of the present (President, Administration and Congress) is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

(They have) refused (their) Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

(They have) forbidden (their)(legislators) to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till (their) Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, (they) has utterly neglected to attend to them.

(They have)refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

(They have)called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

(They have)obstruct(ed) the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refus(ed) to pass others to (dis)courage their (illegal) migrations hither.

(They have) made Judges dependent on (their) Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

(They have) erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

(They have)kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

(They have) combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving (their) Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:For (restricting and regulating) our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond (local jurisdictions) to be tried for pretended offences:

For altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For (superceding) our own (State) Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

(They have) abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of (their)Protection and waging War against us.

(They have) destroyed the lives of our people.

(They are) at this time (arming and supporting) large Armies of foreign (nations) to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the (elected representatives) of a civilized nation.

(They haveallowed) our fellow Citizens to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

(They have) excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of (foreign nations) whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A (President, administration and Congress), whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, (are) unfit to be the (government) of a free people.

We, therefore, the (citizens) of the United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these (United States) solemnly publish and declare, That these united (States)are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the (current tyrannical government) and that all political connection between them and the (free citizens of the Unied States of America), is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Ted Cruz Obamacare debate but while that has been the headline there are a lot of things going on that deserve more attention. Such as Babalu Blog post on the murder of Lara Jones:

It makes the dictatorship look good, and more importantly, it helps drive tourism to the island. Tourists like Lara Jones, a British teacher who thought she was vacationing on the Castro regime's highly touted low-crime island. Instead, this young lady ended up murdered in her Cuban hotel room, and it took the press more than a year to finally report this heinous crime.

However there is a movie out about Cuba Una Noche Jay Nordlinger had this to say about it.

In Una Noche, life in Cuba is depicted as nasty, grim, and hopeless. Is it even worse than depicted? Oh, sure, for a great many. I am reminded of The Lives of Others, that masterpiece of a movie, which appeared in 2006. It is about East Germany and the Stasi. When I wrote about the movie, I heard from former East Germans who said, “Life in our country was worse — a lot worse — than what that movie portrays.” I mentioned this to the maker of the film, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. He said essentially this: “They’re right. But good luck finding a movie that’s closer to the reality.”

And asks this question:

After the Castros fall, will the media and our cultural elites at large speak honestly about Communist Cuba? Will they speak about Cuba the way our ESPN writer spoke about East Germany? I doubt it. They have too much invested in the myths about Cuba: the glories of its health care, literacy, and racial enlightenment.

I think within a few years after the Castro government falls the media will be like France in 1948 where everyone claimed to be part of the resistance.

Robert Stacy McCain brings to our attention a piece on what is and what is not acceptable to say these days:

The point is that everyone has boundaries and communicating these to colleagues through behaviour is key to avoiding unnecessary offence.
It is also important to ensure that when a women is subject to treatment that falls outside her boundaries she can identify that and decide how to address it and move on.
If you do not define your own boundaries then you cannot expect others to be able to either.

There was a time when such advice would have been considered simple common sense, but in our more “enlightened” age it’s a cause for conflict and feminist blogger Katie Halper objected strongly..

Vanessa James is a successful lawyer — and that’s a bad thing, says Katie Halper, who writes for a feminist blog.

This is the difference between pragmatism and ideology: Do you want to solve your problem, or do you want to construe every problem to fit political categories and intellectual abstractions?

Feminism is a totalitarian ideology that acknowledges no limits to its ambitions. Men who seek to negotiate a compromise with feminism are like Neville Chamberlain, supposing he could have peace by handing over the Sudetenland to Hitler.

You can’t negotiate with feminism, you can either fight it or concede to it.

One of the more significant stories of the week has been the slaughter in Kenya by Al Qaeda related groups that specifically targeted non-Muslims. There has been plenty written about that violence, but not as much about the American angle to the story that the tavern Keepers blog has noted:

The Abubakar as-Saddique mosque in Minneapolis has recently been taking actions to combat al-Shabab recruiting of their members. However, this is only coming after they distanced themselves from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Abdirizak Bihi, a Somali-American community leader in Minneapolis, states that while the mosque was affiliated with CAIR it was a center for recruitment by Islamist terrorists.

“All of our kids were going there for years. That’s where indoctrination happened.”

“[The al-Shabaab recruiters] become the father they never had. They engage them. And the way they engage them, is — these angry young men who are left on the street, it’s like, ‘[Americans] don’t like you. They hate you. So we’ll love you.’ In the end, they end up being brainwashed.”

When Mr. Bihi brought the terror recruiting activities to the public, CAIR responded by calling him an Islamophobe, the standard title attached to anyone who dares tell the truth about the actions of Muslim Brotherhood groups and other Islamist factions. There are a lot of Somali refugees that were resettled by the State Department in Minneapolis as the government of Somalia fell to Islamist warlords. While this humanitarian move is to be lauded, problems arose when the community did not assimilate and spread out as new Americans. Instead, they stayed insulated and a perfect target for radicalization and brainwashing by terrorists. According to a Washington Post 2011 profile of Bihi, at least 25 young men disappeared from Minneapolis to fight for Al-Shabab and dozens of others were being investigated for recruiting or fundraising for the terror group.

Atlas Shrugs has been all over stuff like this, but the rest of the media has continued to ignore those facts. Meanwhile PJ media has noted another fact concerning Kenya that has not been convenient to this media.

Reports from Kenya indicate that security wasn’t allowed to carry firearms in the upscale mall where the massacre occurred. At the end of the day, this was another mass shooting in a “gun-free zone.” It would seem that someone forgot to tell the terrorists that weapons were not allowed. Knowing terrorists, I’m sure if they had known about the restriction they would have dutifully complied. Still, there is that chance that some terrorists are not the most upstanding, law-abiding folks in any given neighborhood. Perhaps the better part of valor is making sure that “the gun free” zone goes the way of the dinosaur. We all may be a lot safer.

When I see this kind of talk from our friends on the left on gun free zones making people safe. My mind goes to a quote from Sheldon Cooper and the big Bang Theory:

And I'm sure some fool in the Donner party said the snow would stop any day now. I like to think they ate him first.

I can’t wait for the show to come back new this week.

Lee Stranahan is in Beirut reporting on Christians plight from the Syrian civil war and is breaking news:

In an exclusive interview with independent American journalist Lee Stranahan, Syrian refugees say the attack on the predominantly Christian village of Maaloula was aided by Muslims living in the town. The revelation that their neighbors were joining with the Syrian rebel jihadists to terrorize Christians in the small village about 45 minutes north of Damacscus came as a shock to them.

Anyone who hits bloggers as not real reporters should take a good look at the work Lee is doing right now.

I recently saw the movie The Family staring Robert Di Nero , Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones. It’s a comedy but a dark one with a fair amount of violence and no cleaning up of what organized crime is.

I’ve always found it interesting that the diversity police don’t have a problem with the portrait of Sicilians as a bunch of gangsters. Of course they (or I should say we) are White Europeans so there is no objection to any such thing. Of course I and most Italian Americans could care less.

The Patriots are 3-0 and we’ve heard every week about how poorly they have been playing, Tom Brady has been particularly hard on himself. Yet the team has yet to lose a game.

That’s how good the Patriots have been in the Brady Era, so great that when they are playing bad they start 3-0.

The Boston Red Sox are finishing strong, they’ve clinched the AL east and are fighting with Oakland for the best record in baseball. At the same time with five games to go there are 3 teams (5 mathematically) fighting for those two wild card spots. The Houston Astros are not one of them. With 4 games left they have lost 107 games. They have lost 11 games in a row and can realistically expect to finish with 110 losses.

And if they do so they will still finish a full 10 games ahead of the 1962 New York Mets.

Finally this weekend the 9th Doctor Special is coming up on BBC America, we have finally reached the modern era of the series. Christopher Eccleston only played the Doctor for one year and while David Tennant followed him admirably I’ve always if given another couple of years he might have proved to be one of the best Doctor’s who ever piloted the TARDIS

Friday, September 6, 2013

A lot happened while I was gone but current events in Syria trump everything else.

In terms of the realities on the ground, not much has changed. The various rebel groups continue to fight Assad. Hezbollah Syria & Iran’s proxy force in Lebanon has been enlisted to help defend the regime while Hamas and Al Qaeda are fighting with the rebels and attracting swarms of Islamists all over the world to help in the fight.

Meanwhile we are informed that there are some rebels on the side of the angels who are not Islamists and simply want to remove Assad (a very reasonable desire) and some in the government particularly John McCain and Lindsey Graham have been pushing to arm these folks (there may also be reason to believe that attempts to do so might have had something to do with the Benghazi attacks.

it won’t be “fence-sitters” who give Obama the “yes” vote he needs. It will be hard-core, partisan liberals. They need Obama to help fight their fights, protect Obamacare, push amnesty, etc. An Obama who’s humiliated internationally by a Congress that then pays not cost for it (remember, Americans oppose bombing Syria) will have achieved his “fork moment” (as in “stick one in him, he’s done”) three years before the end of his term.

Loyal Democrats won’t let that happen.

Given that we’ve already seen him try to pretend that he didn’t set a red line concerning Chemical Weapons in Syria it will take more than a congressional vote to make him look strong.

There are legitimate reasons to attack Syria, I’ve listed them but that doesn’t change one thing.

Barack Obama is a weak man in charge of a strong country. No amount of missiles fired at Syria or boots on the ground when that fails, is going to change this fact nor convince our enemies who figured this out long ago, otherwise.

If we decide to go to war just so this president can assert his manhood then we deserve the consequences but if the whip counts don’t change there is a chance that they won’t even bring this up for a vote.

One of the oddest things about the entire Syria debate is the sudden decision by part of the left particularly the MSM that war IS the answer.

The other day, I saw Andrea Mitchell interview Bill Kristol on MSNBC and, if you have any memory at all, you know that Kristol was the Evil Neo-Con Liberals Hated Even More Than Karl Rove during the Bush era. This morning, I woke up early and caught the 4 a.m. replay of Rachel Maddow, and she was so rabidly pro-war you half-expected her to break out into the “Patton” monologue:

I watch MSNBC a lot and I constantly hear that if we don’t strike it will send the wrong message to Iran about our resolve of our country and president to stop their nuclear program.

Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser to the Israeli government and a retired Major General in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), told the Israeli press that Obama “vetoed” the strike, which was planned to take place at the height of the 2012 election cycle.

“Israel has the capability to destroy the Iranian nuclear program” and was prepared to do so, Eiland was quoted as saying in a private meeting earlier this month, according to the Israeli paper Mida.

However, top White House officials “pressured” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the attack on Iranian nuclear sites, according to Eiland.

“There are many areas where Israel is free to act independently: building in Jerusalem, striking in Gaza, and other areas in our region, where we do not need an approval from the U.S.—even when they do not like it,” Eiland told the Israeli paper, confirming that Netanyahu “was about to give a go-ahead” before being told by the United States to stand down.

“But when it comes to issues that affect the broader American interests, we cannot act contrary to their considerations,” Eiland was quoted as saying.

The record is rather amazing. The President was against the revolt in Iran against the Mulahs, pro Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, wouldn’t give the order to relieve Benghazi and support hitting Syria now that Islamists are fighting to remove Assad.

I guess when Glenn Reynolds put it “They not anti-war, they’re just on the other side” back during the Iraq war days he wasn’t kidding.

It’s a given with the number of elected officials in the United states that you are bound to hear one of the say something stupid on a regular basis but that woman from Colorado takes the cake

Another Colorado Democrat has stoked the state’s raging gun-control debate by challenging the argument that guns are needed for self-defense.

Colorado House Majority Leader Dickey Lee Hullinghorst said in an interview on YouTube last week that firearms ownership is redundant because the state Legislature keeps citizens safe from harm.

Does that mean if you are an unarmed person in Colorado and are robbed or injured by an attacker you can sue the state?

We found out that the Fix was in during the Bobby Riggs vs Billy Jean King match from my youth. This had huge cultural significance at the time. I wonder how many of the people who celebrated that win at time would have spoken up if they knew then what we know now.

Speaking of the Fix Anthony Wiener apparently used a company to create phony supporters. This actually isn’t as big a deal as it sounds as our friends on the left have been doing this forever.

I still can’t believe the Red Sox are in first place.

I also think it was a mistake for the Pats to release Tim Tebow, now there is no way to distract the media from the Hernandez murder trial.

The 8th doctor special ran last weekend and it was strictly about the Doctor Who movie. What a waste of time. No Paul McGann no Charlie Pollard no Big Finish.

I wonder since Big finish isn’t allowed to mention the 9th Doctor on if the BBC is restricted from mentioning Big Finish in reverse.

I got to the movies this month and saw “The World’s End”. I thought it was really funny my wife thought it was hilarious. If that’s not the sign of a good date movie I’d like to know what is?

I’ve been watching the Drama Broadchurch on BBC America. I’ve seen up to episode 5 so far and it’s one of the best things on television.

In theory I could look online to find out who did it as this was broadcast last year but so far I’ve managed to hold off.

One oddity, my son was watching it and noticed how many actors from Doctor Who including 10th doctor David Tennant and Arthur (Rory Williams) Darvill where there. There are quite a few but given the amount of time the show’s been on it would almost be harder to find someone who hasn’t appeared on Doctor Who at some time or other.

Finally my youngest who has had trouble finding work for a while picked up two jobs in a week and is working both while back in college. On the way back from the bank he was commenting on how much money is deducted from his checks.

The surest way to spot a future conservative voter is to find a teen who notices the amount of money he earns that the government takes from him.

Friday, August 23, 2013

This is a special edition of Under the Fedora, I'd like to thank NACBU for allowing me to go off my normal topic and post my pitch:

Every morning my lead post pushes DaTipJar to make my weekly paycheck ($305). How would you like me to hit your tip jar for a change?

Over the last 4 years DaTechguy Blog has kept the ball moving. The Scott Brown Campaign, CPAC 2010 and beyond, DaTechGuy on DaRadio on WCRN, the 888-9-FEDORA , Syndication of the Radio Show, the Weekly Paycheck, FTR Radio and finally breaking into the top 100 Conservative web sites in June.

All of this is beyond anything I dreamed five years ago, but it's time to go to the next level!

To get there I need to direct my effort to providing content which means less time chasing advertising in person.
Which means I need to find a person or group of persons to turn these stats

.

... these stats by state stats... (Click on the image for the full PDF)

and combine them with this scatter map of Massachusetts readership...

...

....and other states like Ohio...

and turn them into sales.

To successfully sell any product there are two important ingredients:

1. Building a relationship: People are not going to invest their limited advertising budgets based on a single visit or call by a stranger. A sale can take as many as 6-8 visits or more.

2. Familiarly with a product: The best sales person knows the product they're selling and can recommend it from personal experience.

So the Goal: Find a capable person or team familiar with the site and able to build relationships with a customer base scattered from California to Massachusetts and beyond, who is willing to do this work on a commission basis. Given the amount of time involved in such a job, that's a tall order.

I think the answer, instead of seeking 1 person or team capable of selling to 24 businesses, why not find 24 people capable of selling to just one business each?

"But DaTechGuy", you might ask, "That's crazy! where do you think you are going to find 24 people to do this?"

Actually I don't have to find them, they've found me. It's YOU!

Who knows my blog better than my readers? Who can make the case better than you? From Cincinnati Ohio to Huntsville Alabama, from Knoxville Tennessee to San Jose California, from Fort Worth Texas & Wichita Kansas to the District of Columbia, there are tens of thousands of you who can describe what I write as well as I can.

I'll wager each and every one of you knows a businessman, advocate or even a candidate who might like the idea of reaching over 300,000 people a year for under $50 a week.

30 seconds on an annual basis for the show goes for $2200 which includes a full year of ads on the blog. If only 24 of them are sold I can dramatically expand the ability of both the blog and the radio show to inform and entertain you.

The logical question you might ask is: Why should we bother?

Well it will mean a better site for you, a stronger hand to fight for conservatism both nationally and in blue Massachusetts and when we make things happen you can take pride knowing you had a part in it.

Those are all good reasons, but we're conservatives, capitalists so let's act like it!

You deliver me a customer signed and sealed at 30 seconds & 1 year for $2200 and as soon as I get the cleared check or DaTipJar hit for that sale I'll hit your tip jar for $400! I'll even throw money your way if your pal contacts me & I make the sale.

This blog and radio show exists and thrives because of the 319,566 people who visited in the past year. Your support has made this site a success.
With the help of just 24 of you:

Your friend's business or organization can promote their business or cause to an audience of nearly a 1/3 of a million people.

This blog and radio show will get to the next level becoming an even better source of news and commentary

and you'll have $400 in your pocket. Everybody wins!

If you want more info or if you have any questions drop me a line here.
So what do you say, wanna build some new media organization together?

Friday, August 9, 2013

Life is full of various incentives and this week has been full of them.

Breaking news today is the IRS is continuing to target conservatives even though the scandal is in its 90th day.

Since the MSM is totally ignoring the scandal & Eric Holder has apparently no intention to enforce the law, this should be no surprise. There is no incentive for this administration to stop.

******************************

NBC & CNN provided an incentive to Reince Priebus to make a move that a lot of people in the GOP were very pleased to see.

The problem becomes if you pull out of these debates or keep these people from moderating them then the MSM storyline becomes: “GOP candidates duck real journalists.” and that would be the meme on every single network and their excuse to duck out of coverage.

However the Hillary Movies solve this problem admirably. It provides an excuse, a justification, well of COURSE we can’t have our debates with the people from CNN or NBC. as Reince put it:

The question is, if the party is going to spend time and money and resources in organizing an intelligent and reasonable debate calendar, should we have networks and moderators that are promoting Hillary Clinton depose our candidates and I say: No Way!

It's rather funny when your political foes give provide incentives to do the right thing.

****************

The Bob Filner case also is an example of incentives can you move you. New accusers keep popping out & word is out that democrats knew all about what has been going on, but Filner had an incentive to ignore this. Pick out Bob Filner in the video of the House lining up behind a defiant Bill Clinton during his post impeachment speech of defiance?

Now more women are coming forward to testify that the “hostile climate” for women in the atheist movement is not limited to the Radford situation. Atheist podcaster Stephanie Svan described a case involving Jim Frenkel, while Carrie Poppy describes her problems at the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), which hosted the conference where Stoltznow claims she was sexually assaulted by Radford.

The most interesting aspect of Carrie Poppy’s accusation is the finger she points at JREF President D.J. Grothe, whom she denounces for “constant duplicity, dishonesty, and manipulation.”

I don't understand the problem, if these people man in an evolved animal rather than made in the image of God that this behavior, while socially considered rude or in some cases illegal because of man made social constructs, would in fact be a natural result of said evolution. If that's the case shouldn't it be treated accordingly.

That being the case what is the incentive for them to behave otherwise if that's the logical conclusion?

*************************************

The Owners of the Boston Globe were responded to two incentives this week. The regular losses were a huge incentive to sell to whoever was willing to buy.

After purchasing the Boston Globe in 1993 for a then-record $1.1 billion, the financially troubled New York Times just announced it sold the 141 year-old paper to Boston Red Sox owner John Henry for a mere $70 million. That’s a straight 93% loss. Figuring in two decades of inflation would only make it worse — as does the fact the Times retains the Globe’s pension liabilities, estimated at over $100 million.

Maybe the Globe figures if anyone can turn things around, he can, after all he has a history of producing Miracles that nobody would have believed possible. (and that doesn’t even include this season).

Their fanatical liberalism however was an incentive for them to take an offer less than 1/4 of the high bid.

There is no incentive greater to the left than to keep the right away from any cultural component that can break their monopoly.

********************************

Since we talked a little baseball let's join the A-Rod chorus. He is playing pending the appeal of his suspension. He has hit .273 with two walks & a HBP to this point. No RBI's extra base hits or runs scored to this point.

The Yankees are 11 games behind the Red Sox & seven games out of the Wild Card with three teams ahead of them before they even get to the wild card teams. He's not going to take the over the finish line. Why do you think he is coming back rather than just taking his suspension. Well here is an incentive $28 million this year and between $20 & $25 million per year left on his contract. Until he loses his appeal his contract is solid but once he does...

“The Yankees could argue that they’re going to try to void the contract, and certainly Alex Rodriguez would oppose that through grievance, and in all likelihood it would end with some kind of buyout rather than either side entirely winning,” McCann said in a telephone interview on July 29.

As long as baseball is giving out 10 yrs/$275M to people there is a huge incentive to keep doping no matter what the Penalties

Speaking of money you might remember the name Tawana Brawley. Steve Pagones whose life was ruined by the accusations pushed by Al Sharpton et-al does and he's finally getting some satisfaction:

10 checks totaling $3,764.61 were delivered to ex-prosecutor Steven Pagones — the first payments Brawley has made since a court determined in 1998 that she defamed him with her vicious hoax.

What I found interesting is that while Brawley will apparently be working to pay off Pagones for the rest of her life, fans of Sharpton paid off his share of the debt years ago.

You see Sharpton is very useful when it come to generating race bating headlines for the left or to incite a black community unwilling to deal with the reality of certain issues.

Brawley is not, so while there is incentive to pay off the Rev Al there is none to bail out a LPN trying to support her daughter on her pay.

Yeah the left really loves regular people.

Finally I got into a big discussion on twitter this week over homosexuality. While I've always been a fan of the whole inch people toward the right direction people seemed really upset that I was unwilling to declare gay sex not sinful. One writer was particularly interesting as he kept insisting that prohibitions were all based on faulty translations.

The Bible is not only THE best selling book in history one of the most studied books in the history of history. The idea that all of the greatest scholars in the the last 1700 years have been totally mistranslating Greek for over a dozen centuries, including the people closest to the writing of the time until suddenly in my lifetime enlightened folk finally figured out that there is no prohibition against Homosexual acts.

The arrogance of such a belief is amazing but there is a powerful incentive to such things that I wrote about a long time ago:

Over and over when I read about Anglican priests becoming Catholic we hear about the study of doctrine and the conclusion that the Church is true and right. On the other side we hear the I wants. The church doesn’t allow something that the person whats or objects to a sin that the person does, so they find a different church.

One group looks for truth and goes toward it, the other has sin and wants justification to allow it.

There are people who understand the truth of Christ but have trouble with their sins, for myself it's a constant struggle & fight that I wrestle with daily but for some they've decided to simply redefine what sin is suddenly no guilt, no temptation, just something you enjoy.

It's quite an incentive that can pay dividends for the rest of one's life.

the question becomes will it pay dividends beyond it and that is, to me the most powerful incentive of all.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

At mass this week the first reading was the famous exchange between Abraham and god/his angels concerning Sodom & Gomorrah as Abraham starts at 50 and finishes with God declaring that if he find 10 righteous people in the city he will not destroy it for the sake of those 10.

I couldn’t help but think that is why cities like San Francisco no matter how much they would like, will never drive out the Church completely. They wanna have those 10 people in the city just in case.

BTW on a side note as I’m typing this in word both Sodom & Gomorrah are in the spell checker. Just a reminder how deep the cultural roots of the Bible actually are.

Speaking of this he media is absolutely having an orgasms over the Pope’s word on the plane back from the hugely successful World youth day in Rio.

Pope Francis is reaching out to gays, saying he won’t judge priests for their sexual orientation, in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returns from his first foreign trip.

Francis says: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

To someone not familiar with you know actual Catholic Belief ,this are shocking words. But to those who know Catholic Belief he hasn’t said anything extraordinary. The media is spinning and selling a bill of goods:

Once we define ourselves, are lives and our actions based on sin, or based on our desire for sin everything changes. Instead of being the woman caught in sin accepting the forgiveness Christ offers her:

“Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more.”

we instead answer back:

But Jesus, I like this sin, I enjoy this sin and who are you to really say this is sin? Maybe you should reconsider.

The media is setting two traps with the same bait. The media want both the uninformed about the faith and the faithful to think the Pope is saying something he is not

For the media it is and always will be about spinning something rather than reporting something.

Anthony Weiner continues to be in the news. Byron York notes that those saying he is using the Clinton playbook is wrong.

Mrs. Clinton was a key player in her husband’s defense on both occasions, and today she is close with Abedin, her long-time aide. So why shouldn’t Abedin try to emulate her mentor’s success?

Because it won’t work. Abedin can’t follow Volume I of the Clinton playbook because Weiner can’t deny everything, as Clinton did — falsely but successfully — in ’92. And she can’t follow Volume II because Weiner is not president of the United States.

While one can say he is not specifically using the Clinton Playbook he is certainly using the main Clinton tactic. DON’T RESIGN, DON’T QUIT.

Bill Clinton rightly figured there was no percentage in resigning and forever being the first democrat to resign the presidency. He understood what a post resignation presidency would be and it wouldn’t be anything like it is today and that doesn’t even count Hilary. His wife would forever be tagged as not the woman who stood by him but his accomplice in deceiving the public at the start. the first lady who did so and it would have made her own ambitions much harder to achieve.

So they went all in vs Starr and with the media’s help managed to win.

Weiner & Huma are using the same calculus.

Weiner and Huma are staying in the race because they understand there is no advantage to leaving. If he pulls out he is the guy whose comeback failed and is done and Huma’s future is compromised by her defense of him. If he stays there is a chance, a tiny one, but a chance that he makes the cut to the next round.

If he does he can credit Huma’s public defense of him and if he fails it can be dismissed as just not enough to save the day. As for the critiques of her while right now women are hitting Huma for backing him some were hitting Hillary too. That will pass but Huma’s connections and the funding they can provide will not.

While one can debate if he is playing out of the Clinton playbook one can’t deny he seems to have a lot of members of the Clinton team on his bench

In addition to Mr. Reines, other longtime Clinton loyalists, including Maggie Williams, who managed Mrs. Clinton’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid, Cheryl Mills, who was Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff at the State Department, and Mr. Clinton’s longtime aide Doug Band, have all reached out to Ms. Abedin to offer support and guidance, according to several people close to the Clintons. Ms. Abedin, now 37, is something of a little sister to the group, having started working in the Clinton White House at the age of 19.

Or should I say Huma has a lot of members of the Clinton them on HER bench.

I still think Huma is the real story here, her connections to Mrs. Clinton is, in my opinion nothing short of miraculous:

In 1996 Bill Clinton was president and people were already talking about a political future for Hillary. Working with her must have been on of the most coveted positions for a young woman in the democrat party. Certainly there must have been plenty of sons and daughters of pols, campaign workers and democrat fundraisers who would have died for the chance to be in that position.

Yet Huma Abadin a young lady still in college who has spent a lifetime in Saudi Arabia not only gets the job, but has stayed with Hillary Clinton her entire life since.

Remind me, who is the one with the power, with the juice? Who is the one with the backers that people want to associate with?

I can’t understand why anyone isn’t asking these question other than me.

We’re still 3 months away from the Big Doctor Who anniversary episode and I still have no idea how they are going to play it. Everyone seems to be keeping their mouths shut.

I’ve always figured it you have something good, why keep it a secret?

Still no clue who the new 12th doctor is going to be, but this will be announced Sunday at 2 PM EST.

I’m still of the opinion that they should have him regress, start to fix the procedure and then have it stick on the 8th doctor.

That would not only solve the “having all the old doctors” in the special but would give Paul McGann a chance to actually play the role on TV. He has been first rate in the Big Finish adventures and I think deserves a chance on the small screen.

we'll find out if that happens today

How cool is it that the GOP chairowoman is a fan of the Tom Baker Dr. Who episodes? It makes me feel a lot better about being old enough to be her father.

Age is catching up to me and I’m finding more and more obits in the paper that are within a few years of me, this came to mind at a mini high school class party to celebrate all of our 50th birthdays this year.

Apart from the purely physical appearance of people it was interesting and rather pleasant to simply speak to people who had interests as diverse as Bird Watching to the same Doctor Who fandom that I enjoy. Their stories were no less interesting for my familiarity with the people there.

It highlighted the advantage, at least in my mind, of NOT being on Facebook. Because I was not as familiar with everyone’s day-to-day activities the pleasure of discovery and the sheer joy of being with people was more pronounced

As for physical appearances let me say that the fact that some really charming and beautiful women there were not attached is a scathing indictment on the quality and gumption of single men between the ages of 45-54.

I'm getting older there are less of these things left than I like, I'm glad went to this one not only for the reasons above but the restaurant had Kentucky Derby Pie.